Implementing temporary programs to hold players over for permanent changes

If you've been playing Forza Motorsport 5, you're probably very familiar with the game's awful microtransactions. If not, basically the game uses tokens you buy in-game that can be used to purchase cars if you don't have enough credits. The problem is it's severely broken and takes advantage of consumers, specifically with the value of said tokens being misleading.

Players are not happy, and Turn 10 responded to both their feedback and in-game data with programs to be implemented this week as a means of tiding players over for the supposed permanent changes to come to the Forza 5 economy.

Starting this Friday and ending Sunday, all cars will be 50% off (both credits and tokens). Forza 5 VIP members will receive a 2013 Lotus E21 Grand Prix, and if they have already bought that they will receive a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO. Players who have purchased the LaFerrari car pack or car pass will have the LaFerrari placed directly in the garage. For the entire month of December, credit payouts will be significantly increased through Forza Rewards.

Turn 10 did not stop there, and issued an apology specifically to players who bought the limited edition of the game and were mislead to believe the 1,250 tokens included with the edition would be enough to purchase any car available in the game, which turned out to not be the case. Sometime between today and December 16, a page will go live that will allow these players specifically to add any car of their choosing directly to their garage.

This is definitely a good start, but the vague promise of future permanent changes to the economy simply is not good enough. The presence of free-to-play microtransaction pricing (or microtransactions at all) used to hold back content with the intent of nickel and diming consumers in a $60 game is extremely off-putting and should have never been included in the game in the first place. If anything, these apology programs should be permanent until future revisions to the economy are made.

It's a shame, because the game outside of these decisions is really good. Given the franchise's history, it's hard to believe the direction taken with this entry is entirely Turn 10's fault and probably came from higher up at Microsoft. We can only hope they understand this is not the way to go in the future.

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